Heretofore various types of devices have been employed for the cleaning of carpet. One common type device is known as a carpet soil extractor or jet water extractor. In such devices, sources of cleaning solution and vacuum are provided in communication with a wand having a vacuum nozzle and spray nozzle at a working end thereof. By means of a valve, an operator can spray out cleaning solution immediately ahead of the vacuum nozzle as the wand is employed in its normal operating movement.
Typically, the wands employed with previously known carpet soil extractors have comprised a unitary tubular member with the vacuum nozzle fixedly and immovably attached to the working end. Such inflexible wands have not been conducive to utilization in tight quarters, nor have they allowed the spray and vacuum nozzles to be placed under low lying furniture such as beds and the like. Accordingly, tight corners have required difficult maneuvers by the operator while the cleaning under beds and the like has required actual movement and replacement of the bed.
Due to the inflexibility of previously known wands, there is a need in the art for an adjustable wand for such carpet soil extractors in which the length of the wand can be adjusted and the head of the wand can be set at various selected angles with respect to the wand axis. Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 3,962,745 teaches the basic concept of a wand and cleaning head for a carpet soil extractor in which the cleaning head is connected to the wand by a swivel. Cleaning heads for similar devices are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,083,077 and 4,559,667. Further, the basic concept of a telescopic wand is shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,885,223, 3,351,359, 3,793,646, and 3,083,041. However, none of these prior art patents teach a telescoping wand satisfactory for implementation with a carpet soil extractor. Finally, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,747,621 and 4,625,998 are of general interest to the concept of the invention in that they relate to swivel couplings for a hose interconnection. In like manner, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,962,559, 3,949,442, and 4,494,270 are of general interest in that they teach various types of head and wand interconnections. However, they fall far short of teaching a concept readily adapted to a wand for a carpet soil extractor of the type presented herein.